Jeff Shell, Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, congratulates Andy Lack after swearing him in as the first ever CEO of U.S. international media. (Image Source: BBG Press Release)
Many thanks to Dan Robinson, who shared links to several news stories that propose Andrew Lack may be leaving the CEO position of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to return to NBC.
Here’s a clip from the Washington Post:
Former NBC news president and former Bloomberg Media chairman Andy Lack, who was brought in to fix the perennially troubled U.S. international media operations, is leaving after just six weeks on the job.
[…] Lack is in negotiations with NBC News to return to a top job there, according to report Tuesday in Variety, the entertainment news publication, dashing the hopes of State Department and BBG officials who wanted the high-powered media executive to energize U.S. overseas media operations.
The negotiations were spurred, Variety noted, by the crisis set off at NBC News by the Brian Williams debacle and suspension.
So rather than right the ship at BBG — he had talked about growing the operation, not cutting it — Lack is apparently going off to right the other ship.”
Indeed, this story was featured in the following news sources:
If Andy does make the move, we’ll post an update.
So much for “commitment”. The BBG can’t even properly conduct an executive search. I don’t care what the circumstances are at NBC, this reveals a deep character flaw in Mr. Lack — one the search process obviously failed to identify. Better luck next time.
I don’t think this is a character flaw in Lack. From those I have been speaking to at the VOA and BBG. It was a case of jumping a sinking ship. Many of the political bureaucrats at BBG didn’t seem to happy that Lack was going to rock the boat. As you know the public sector is always more opposed to change than the private sector.
Lack was smart to leave. Why stay around if you know it can’t be fixed. Considering that Lack has a very good reputation in the industry and is known as a someone who wants to get things done. Getting things done at the BBG is up until now impossible. Why stay around if you going to always have to fight to make changes.
The problems in US international broadcasting are well past being fixed. The best thing they could do it pull the plug.